The invention relates generally to the field of consumer protection and more particularly, to protecting consumers from fraudulent solicitors employing telecommunications as a means of contact.
The unsolicited telephone call has become over many years an unwanted nuisance to some individuals. Where unsolicited telephone calls were, in some cases, merely an annoying interruption of daily life, the calls have become, for some, a more troubling and dangerous prospect. Unscrupulous entities have for some time taken to using the telephone and other forms of telecommunications as a means for scamming individuals out of important resources such as money and more contemporarily, out of one's identity.
One manner of combating against unsolicited calls involves using caller ID services provided by a telephone provider. Examples may be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 6,618,473 to Davis and U.S. Publication No. 2004/0131164 to Gould.
Unscrupulous entities may cheat a caller ID system by using techniques such as spoofing. Spoofing involves, in some instances, registering fake identities and telephone numbers with the caller ID service so that a spoofer's caller ID information fraudulently displays the origin of its calls. Some spoofers send hoax calls pretending to be legitimate entities, such as a targeted individual's bank, and convince the individual to provide sensitive information such as a social security number and bank account number.
As may be seen, there is a need for a system and method of screening out calls that employ authentication of the calls' origins.